Speakout is Truthout's treasure chest for bloggy, quirky, personally reflective, or especially activism-focused pieces. Speakout articles represent the perspectives of their authors, and not those of Truthout.

Ghulam Reza often plays at the Borderfree Center. He's 5 years, 3 months old. On Saturday, he was filling an empty chips bag with water, tying off the top, and pushing it along, atop a roof tile. Zarghuna and I tried asking if it was a ship or a truck, but he generally ignored us and kept on playing quietly.

Turkey is a beautiful country filled with beautiful people who sometimes kill each other -- much like any other country. It is the home to pristine beaches along the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea coasts that are rich in classical and biblical history. Its urban gem, Istanbul, rivals Paris in romantic nostalgia steeped in history, literature, art and music. Though the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal, moved the capital from Istanbul to Ankara upon the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Istanbul remains the cultural heart of Turkey.

Most Americans know that J. Edgar Hoover violated the civil rights of many of our citizens, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One way to assure that such abuses of power do not continue to occur is for our government to take action, no matter how belated, against all perpetrators. I have written to President Obama asking that he, by executive order, have J. Edgar Hoover's name immediately removed from the FBI building, all FBI stationery and any other address references (printed and online) for the FBI office building.

Late afternoon on December 27, "Lunatic Outpost" released a video showing a group of about "20 to 50" Water Protectors who, while returning from a prayer walk along the Cannonball River, were chased down by armed security from DAPL and Morton County Sheriff's Department. A helicopter and tracked vehicles were involved in the pursuit. Behind the images of the large number of police and security dotting the snow-covered terrain played, background radios from the Standing Rock medics could be heard. "We need a medic team. We need a team ready to roll now." Then the narrator says "Four women were taken away in a red paddy wagon of some sort."

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is on the front burner for the start of the January congressional session. Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, says that it is "the first item up in the new year." There are major, unresolved questions, however, as to what repeal really means, with many provisions of the ACA supported by Republicans, insurers, hospitals, patient advocacy groups and the public. Despite their goal, the GOP still has no replacement plan after almost seven years of the ACA's passage.

Najaf, Iraq -- A week has passed since my arrival in Iraq. Once again, we come desiring to strengthen the bonds of human friendship, bonds which threaten to break as the opportunities to visit each other become less and less possible. A few days prior to my departure, I attended a Veterans for Peace holiday party in New York City where I live. Most members of this chapter were in the US military during the Vietnam War. The chapter invited the Vietnamese ambassador to the UN to their gathering. In a moving message, she stressed that the war has been over for 40 years now, and that it was hard to find remnants of the war in her country. "It is hard however for us to forget" she said. "We remember so that it won't happen again."

In the weeks since the election of Donald Trump, I have started to double check whether I have my birth registration card in my wallet. This is an ID card that looks like a green credit card and is proof that I am a US citizen. Growing up in Douglas, Arizona, just walking distance to the US-Mexico border, I have been stopped by US Border Patrol. In high school, I was stopped while in a car with my friend and her mother and we were questioned about our citizenship status.

After the shock of the election outcome, I struggled with the question of why on Earth Donald Trump became the winner. In listening to his negative campaign rhetoric -- including the stereotyping of Muslims, Mexicans and others; making fun of people with disabilities; disparaging prisoners of war and a Gold Star family; and then listening to the tape of his words describing his objectification and mistreatment of women -- I had an image of the man as the bully on the playground because bullies do similar things to diminish the others around them.

On January 3, 2017, the 115th Congress is set to begin. After three long days, our representatives will count the votes cast in the Electoral College and declare to the people who will be the next president of the United States. Two weeks later, at exactly 12:00 pm, Donald Trump will be officially sworn in as the 45th president by Chief Justice John Roberts. To the consternation of most, this is really happening.

Last week, over 1,200 US historians and scholars in related fields signed a statement, of which I was a co-author, calling for vigilance against potential civil rights and liberties abuses under the coming Trump administration and an emboldened far right. The avalanche of signatures and speed with which the statement circulated suggested that our worries were shared by many. At issue were the calls for a Muslim registryand the creation of a "Professor Watch List," which brought to mind troubling antecedents such as the Japanese American internment of World War II and the McCarthyist witch hunts of the Cold War.

Speakout is Truthout's treasure chest for bloggy, quirky, personally reflective, or especially activism-focused pieces. Speakout articles represent the perspectives of their authors, and not those of Truthout.

Ghulam Reza often plays at the Borderfree Center. He's 5 years, 3 months old. On Saturday, he was filling an empty chips bag with water, tying off the top, and pushing it along, atop a roof tile. Zarghuna and I tried asking if it was a ship or a truck, but he generally ignored us and kept on playing quietly.

Turkey is a beautiful country filled with beautiful people who sometimes kill each other -- much like any other country. It is the home to pristine beaches along the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea coasts that are rich in classical and biblical history. Its urban gem, Istanbul, rivals Paris in romantic nostalgia steeped in history, literature, art and music. Though the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal, moved the capital from Istanbul to Ankara upon the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Istanbul remains the cultural heart of Turkey.

Most Americans know that J. Edgar Hoover violated the civil rights of many of our citizens, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One way to assure that such abuses of power do not continue to occur is for our government to take action, no matter how belated, against all perpetrators. I have written to President Obama asking that he, by executive order, have J. Edgar Hoover's name immediately removed from the FBI building, all FBI stationery and any other address references (printed and online) for the FBI office building.

Late afternoon on December 27, "Lunatic Outpost" released a video showing a group of about "20 to 50" Water Protectors who, while returning from a prayer walk along the Cannonball River, were chased down by armed security from DAPL and Morton County Sheriff's Department. A helicopter and tracked vehicles were involved in the pursuit. Behind the images of the large number of police and security dotting the snow-covered terrain played, background radios from the Standing Rock medics could be heard. "We need a medic team. We need a team ready to roll now." Then the narrator says "Four women were taken away in a red paddy wagon of some sort."

Repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is on the front burner for the start of the January congressional session. Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, says that it is "the first item up in the new year." There are major, unresolved questions, however, as to what repeal really means, with many provisions of the ACA supported by Republicans, insurers, hospitals, patient advocacy groups and the public. Despite their goal, the GOP still has no replacement plan after almost seven years of the ACA's passage.

Najaf, Iraq -- A week has passed since my arrival in Iraq. Once again, we come desiring to strengthen the bonds of human friendship, bonds which threaten to break as the opportunities to visit each other become less and less possible. A few days prior to my departure, I attended a Veterans for Peace holiday party in New York City where I live. Most members of this chapter were in the US military during the Vietnam War. The chapter invited the Vietnamese ambassador to the UN to their gathering. In a moving message, she stressed that the war has been over for 40 years now, and that it was hard to find remnants of the war in her country. "It is hard however for us to forget" she said. "We remember so that it won't happen again."

In the weeks since the election of Donald Trump, I have started to double check whether I have my birth registration card in my wallet. This is an ID card that looks like a green credit card and is proof that I am a US citizen. Growing up in Douglas, Arizona, just walking distance to the US-Mexico border, I have been stopped by US Border Patrol. In high school, I was stopped while in a car with my friend and her mother and we were questioned about our citizenship status.

After the shock of the election outcome, I struggled with the question of why on Earth Donald Trump became the winner. In listening to his negative campaign rhetoric -- including the stereotyping of Muslims, Mexicans and others; making fun of people with disabilities; disparaging prisoners of war and a Gold Star family; and then listening to the tape of his words describing his objectification and mistreatment of women -- I had an image of the man as the bully on the playground because bullies do similar things to diminish the others around them.

On January 3, 2017, the 115th Congress is set to begin. After three long days, our representatives will count the votes cast in the Electoral College and declare to the people who will be the next president of the United States. Two weeks later, at exactly 12:00 pm, Donald Trump will be officially sworn in as the 45th president by Chief Justice John Roberts. To the consternation of most, this is really happening.

Last week, over 1,200 US historians and scholars in related fields signed a statement, of which I was a co-author, calling for vigilance against potential civil rights and liberties abuses under the coming Trump administration and an emboldened far right. The avalanche of signatures and speed with which the statement circulated suggested that our worries were shared by many. At issue were the calls for a Muslim registryand the creation of a "Professor Watch List," which brought to mind troubling antecedents such as the Japanese American internment of World War II and the McCarthyist witch hunts of the Cold War.